Title: Water Resources Management in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Author: Alessandro Tinti
Place of publication: #Sulaymaniyah#
Publisher: IRIS
Release date: 2017

While water crises are commonly framed as natural hazards or the result of suboptimal economic outcomes, they are quite often the consequence of short-sighted political decisions. From this perspective, the IRIS fellow Alessandro Tinti engaged with government officials, environmental activists, and international experts in the water sector to identify pressing issues and priority areas.

The outcome of this research is this report, which has a twofold purpose: (1) to illustrate the main challenges to water planning and management in the KRI; and (2) to summarize policy measures and best practices to be implemented based on a functional need assessment of the KRG water sector.

Overall, findings suggest a multi-pronged approach: improve data collection and management, integrate water administrations at the regional level, shift policy attention from the supply side to the demand side, and promote – in cooperation with the Government of Iraq (GOI) – a basin-wide initiative in the transboundary Tigris-Euphrates river system.[1]